Transient Density-Induced Dipolar Interactions in a Thin Vapor Cell

Abstract

We exploit the effect of light-induced atomic desorption to produce high atomic densities ($n\gg k^3$) in a rubidium vapor cell. An intense off-resonant laser is pulsed for roughly one nanosecond on a micrometer-sized sapphire-coated cell, which results in the desorption of atomic clouds from both internal surfaces. We probe the transient atomic density evolution by time-resolved absorption spectroscopy.With a temporal resolution of $\approx 1\mathrm{ns}$, we measure the broadening and line shift of the atomic resonances. Both broadening and line shift are attributed to dipole-dipole interactions. This fast switching of the atomic density and dipolar interactions could be the basis for future quantum devices based on the excitation blockade.

13 pages, 4+6 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Low-Light-Level Optical Interactions with Rubidium Vapor in a Photonic Bandgap Fiber
• ElecSus: A program to calculate the electric susceptibility of an atomic ensemble
• UV light-induced atom desorption for large rubidium and potassium magneto-optical traps
• A superatom picture of collective nonclassical light emission and dipole blockade in atom arrays

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Probing molecules in gas cells of subwavelength thickness with high frequency resolution